The Picture
by Arom1
Summary: Humphrey's last Night as a firefighter, and the start of something new...
1. Chapter 1

"We have a Four-Alarm Fire, I repeat we have a Four-Alarm fire, twenty story apartment building on west Channing street"

the metallic voice crackles out of the loud speaker before being droned out by a piercing screech, Search and rescue member Humphrey Collins wakes up immediately to the blaring sirens rousing the other members who are still asleep

"Shit man what's going on?"

a voice called out from the chaos of the fire station

"There's an emergency on West Channing street!"

another voice replies, sprinting down the sleeping quarters to the pole leading to the engine room directly below Humphrey reaches the exit, he quickly grabs onto the pole loose enough to slide, but tight enough to hang on, upon reaching the ground he moves towards his locker sliding in his jumpsuit, putting his boots on, buttoning up his jacket, and putting his hat on, checking his gloves and sliding in them as well, reaching for the picture he keeps in his pocket he pulls it out, and smiles, gives it a kiss and tucks it back in giving it a pat, moving towards the Fire engine he climbs onto his position, the back of the truck, grasping the handles tightly he calls out

"Hey let's go!"

the truck starts with a jerk then smooth's out to an even pace eventually reaching a breakneck speed, Humphrey is glad for those handles, or he would have been a goner a while ago, screeching to a stop, the truck about fishtails in the parking lot of the Burning building, jumping off the back Humphrey runs to the firemen who have already made it there, reaching their truck he calls out

"hey! What's the situation?"

the door slides open and the fire chief steps out

"We got a Four-Alarm fire going on, there area still some survivors left in the building, your search an rescue, get you team and get in there!"

he finished the last part with a point to my truck, my teammates already attaching the hose to a fire hydrant near the flames, running back there the job had been done and the actual firefighters are already making their way to the entrance extinguishing any fire in their path, by this time more fire engines arrive and more crew are jumping out and attaching their hose on any fire hydrants nearby, including their cars, upon reaching his engine Humphrey rally's up the search and rescue team

"Listen up guys!"

he starts

"we got twenty stories of rooms to clear, there are survivors, once the hose bearers clear the way we'll go in and look for them, am I making myself clear?"

upon saying that he is rewarded replies of yes and uh huh

"okay, great"

he says looking over his shoulder to check the progress of the other teams

"So suit up and get ready, because we're going in soon"

upon saying that he slides his helmet on and reaches into the fire engine to grab his prodding stick, grabbing his prodding stick he turns to see his men all ready and nods his head in approval

"come men we're going in!"

he hollers moving towards the team up ahead working on clearing an entrance for them following the hose them meet up with the other firefighters, Humphrey moves up to talk to the leader

"Hey buddy"

the man turns his head towards him

"Yeah?"

"how long till we can go in?"

"Just, about, NOW!"

he grunts shutting the hose of allowing them to enter without getting soaked

"thanks"

Humphrey says and then motions for his men to continue in, entering the building with minimal cracks and snaps from the charred wood they immediately began fanning out looking for survivors of the first floor, none yet flipping over furniture and other objects with their prodding sticks they call the hose team in, they enter with loud crunches signaling their arrival

"alright, we need you to head onto the second floor while we move up to the third"

Humphrey tells , they just nod, moving up the damage stairs one of the steps breaks causing Tom Brigates to tumble

"you okay?"

they all question, he gets up brushing the ash and soot off he gives them a thumbs up

"well what are you doing down there?"

Humphrey questions

"get your ass up here!"

quickly complying he makes it up the steps this time stepping over the weak spot, making it to the second floor they immediately head for the third calling out for survivors

"Anybody here?"

stepping over flames and rubble they move up

"If your up here come to the sound of our voices!"

using their prodding sticks to make sure the flour is strong, they deem it fit for the hose crew to come up and extinguish the fire, moving towards the steps to the third floor the heat seemed to become more and more intense, reading his men Humphrey says

"all right guys, this is when the fun starts, be in your toes"

reaching for the door handle he quickly turns it ad flings it open, the flames spew out scorching anything it touches causing the men to jump back

"shit"

one them says, after the initial flames dies down a bit they enter the charred room, Humphrey stumbling over something he picks himself back up, taking a look at the cause of his fall he realizes its and burnt to a charred corpse, grabbing his radio he calls in

"Uh chief?"

after a few seconds a reply comes through

"yeah?"

"well we found one of the survivors"

"Great, what's his condition?"

"Dead"

the line is met by static

"….you sure?"

his gaze trails down to the black figure

"yes"

"just continue the mission"

"alright, over and out"

he stands up

"alright you heard the man. Lets continue the mission!"

no sooner than he said it and loud beeping filled the air, looking down quickly he realized that that was if motionsenser

"Shit the ceilings collapsing!"

he managed to scream before diving into the room leading to flour four, while the rest of his men dove down the stairs into the second floor, a loud splintering sound was heard followed by the noise of crumbling brick and then _*CRACK!* _ the whole ceiling gave out pilling its rubble on the stairway below him

"shit"

he mumbled

"guess there is only one way to go now….."

he said looking at the stair way in front of him

"…..up"

reaching for the railing he began to pull himself up and onto the fifth floor from which he heard crying

"is anybody up here?"

he cooed, upon saying that he peaks his head around the corner of the wall only to see a little girl slumped over crying, moving silently he walks towards the girl until he's close enough to touch her

"are you okay?"

he asks, she looks up to him and shakes her head

"no…"

she starts, looking around he sees an window

"come with me, I can get you out of here"

he reaches for her hand, and she takes it, but before they could move towards the window the all to familiar sound of weak wood begging to collapse makes an eerie appearance

"don't move "

he whispers and the girl stands perfectly still

"on the count of three you're going to run for that window, okay?"

she nods her head

"one…"

he looks around

"…two…"

he grabs her under the armpits

"..THREE!"

he screams throwing the little girl towards the window before the floor gives out, once she leaves his hand a quick rumble and he's gone he is smashing through floors until he hits the basement, lying there hurt and in pain, his legs are pinned down under piles of rubble, even of they weren't they'd probably still be broken, looking up he can see the girl up five floors from him and he yells

"GO TO THE WINDOW!"

the yell took away the last of his strength, he slumps down, just then he hears a crackle followed by

"Humphrey you okay?"

he reaches for the radio

"no, I'm not, I'm pretty bad"

followed by static

"you hold on man, we're coming for you!"

"NO!"

he yelled in the mic

"get the girl first"

"the girl?..."

the chief questions

"yeah, 5th floor she's looking out the window"

he set the radio down, sitting up he tried to wiggle free from the debris's grasp, but alas no luck, no matter how hard he tried, the rubble was to heavy

"Shit, Humphrey, you still there?"

the radio called out, he quickly reached for it and brought it to his face

"yeah, im still here, what?"

"aw man this is bad"

"what?"

"Well…"

he started

"you see, we don't have enough time for the both of you"

those words caught his breath

"what do you mean not enough time?"

"well, to state it bluntly it's you or the girl"

he dropped the radio

"…shit…."

he mumbled

"Humphrey you still there?"

he sat there silently

"Humphrey?

" after a few moments of silence he grabbed the radio

"Get the girl!"

the radio was silent

"what?"

his temper flared

"GET THE GIRL!"

the radio crackled

"you sure?"

tears brimmed his eyes

"…yes…"

he closed his eyes and went for his breast pocket, slowly unclasping the clip he grabbed the picture he keeps in there, bringing the picture close to his face he radioed one more time

"Chief?"

"yeah?"

"well, can you tell Kate, that I love her, and that I'm sorry we couldn't get married, also tell her that she should forget about me and go for someone else"

the tears finally left his eyes, dripping slowly across his cheeks, dropping towards he ground burning up with a sizzle, looking at the picture and smiling he could remember that day as if it were yesterday.

Two Years ago

_Humphrey was driving along the highway, it was an electrical storm and he was coming back from a call when he reached a bend in the road he saw a car on its side in the ditch, screeching his truck to a stop he turned his head lights on high, and hopped out making his way towards the smoking car he looked for any signs of life, not seeing any he called out _

_"Anybody in hear?"_

_ he was met by a grunt, quickly moving towards the driver's side of the car, peeking through the shattered window he saw a golden wolf crumpled up, blood oozing out of a cut on her forehead, reacting quickly he open the crumpled door with a tug, creaking open slowly the woman tumbled out, getting on his knees he took off his shirt wrapping it around her head, after tightening the makeshift bandage he picked her up and headed for her truck, setting her in the passenger side, he called 911 _

_"911, what's your emergency?"_

_ looking at the girl real quick he replied_

_ "On highway 89, there's been an accident a woman looks like to have lost control of her vehicle and skidded of the road, she suffered minor injuries but I'm taking her to the hospital now" _

_"alright we have sent a team over now"_

_ closing his phone he started the car up and drove to the direction of the hospital occasionally looking over to the woman to see if she has woken up, upon reaching the hospital, he turned into the ER section stopping the car in an Handicap space he jumped out and ran to the other side carefully picking up the woman, and running towards the entrance, upon seeing the woman slumped in the man's arm the ER staff quickly brought out a stretcher and wheeled her away in the operating room, leaving the man standing worried in the waiting room, after a few hours the nurse entered the waiting room only to see the man pacing _

_"Humphrey?"_

_ she called out, looking up from his trance he quickly made his way over to her asking _

_"is she okay?"_

_ motioning for him to follow her, after turning a few corners he entered the patients room, opening the door the nurse walked in and soon followed Humphrey_

_ "Kate Winslow?" _

_her head shot up_

_ "yeah?"_

_ stepping out of the way so Humphrey was visible she said _

_"this is the man that saved you" _

_her eyes went wide, Humphrey realized he still in his firefighting drab, and that he hadn't had a shirt on, just an unbuttoned jacket_

_ "sorry"_

_ he mumbled and then closed his jacket, the nurse smiled _

_"I'll leave you two to talk"_

_ and with that she left, looking around the room Humphrey took a seat _

_"uh, Hi I'm Humphrey Collins nice to meet you"_

_ he stuck out a hand _

_"well, as you heard I'm kate, its nice to meet you too"_

_ she sorta giggled and took his hand, after a quick pump he let go _

_"soo… why did you help me "_

_ he smirked_

_ "what did you think I would just leave a person in need slowly bleeding out at the side of the road?"_

_ it as her turn to smile _

_"so, what's up with that?"_

_ she questioned pointing towards him_

_ "what? You mean what I'm wearing?"_

_ she nodded _

_"well, I just came back from a call and was driving home and I saw your car"_

_ standing up she walked towards the drawer and pulled something out, it was his shirt _

_"this yours?"_

_ nodding his head she threw the shirt at him, catching it he unbuttoned his jacket, let it slide to the ground and then slipping into the shirt, all with her watching him, him turning red he asked_

_ "um, do you need anything"_

_ she blushed _

_"no, no I'm fine"_

_ after an awkward silence he asks_

_ "I know this may sound blunt but, where were you going?"_

_ sitting down across from him she answered _

_"I was coming home from collage"_

_ he raised his eyebrows_

_ " what are you studying?"_

_he questioned _

_"Oh, I'm studying medicine"_

_ he stood up _

_"were you drinking?"_

_ her face had a surprise look on it _

_"NO, I'm only twenty" _

_he sat down and rubbed the back of his head _

_"oh, sorry you see most of these things happen when people drink, you know"_

_ "Why, did you know from experience?"_

_ she jokes_

_ "no, I might be twenty two, but I don't drink, bad things happen when people drink "_

_ after a silence she hops up_

_ "we'll the nurse said I'm free to go, and I thought you might want to go do something with me?"_

_ she says the last part fast, he smiles _

_"what, like a date?"_

_ she blushes _

_"no, well maybe, yeah"_

_ he stands up and takes out his keys_

_ "well, I'm driving"_

_ she smiles and the two walk out the door._

He smiles at the memory

"Humphrey the building is collapsing, but we got the girl!"

he ignores the frantic voices instead he focuses on the picture, it was simple picture of him and her hugging each other, he's ignoring the flaming boards falling from the ceiling, or how smoke is filling the room, All he focuses on is: The Picture.

** i watched ladder 49 the other day which gave me this idea, also after done typing this i thought, you know i got an idea of how i could continue this, if you want, so here are the ideas.**

**Idea 1:** **J****ust more flashbacks of his life before he dies**

**Idea 2: He survives, but its not the way you think he would, it becomes very scifi like.**

**hit me up with a reveiw say no, or yes, and state which one, good night!.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sitting bored at my house I casually check the clock, its 9:30 then it hits me I normally go to sleep at eleven, that means I got an hour and a half to type, so I get off my lazy ass and grab my laptop and think, what to type, I already got my rough drafts for fortunate son and snapped on my other computer, then I remember something I said, I said I would continue the story The picture, but a word of warning my idea to continue it will be Very, uh SCIFI like, like with time travel and space marines and what not, so you have been warned!**

The room is almost filled with smoke, but Humphrey didn't care all he cared about was that picture of him and Kate, until it hit him,

"I gotta escape"

he says at loud, struggling he manages to get a leg free, but upon doing so more rubble crumbles down over his other trapped leg, grabbing the large bricks he slowly starts piling them to the side, CRACK! A floor board up ahead drops snapping on impact, looking up he sees the inferno beckoning him, he works faster and it isn't till the flames start licking his hair when he finally manages to free himself where then he is met by another problem, where the fuck is he supposed to go, he decides quickly anywhere but here is better, crawling across the floor he winces, yep his right leg was broken, he grabs his radio

"chief?"

he croaks out

"Humphrey god damn boy you still alive?"

responds the chief, he chuckles

"yeah, but not for long, any ideas how to escape?"

he hears the chief curse and say something to someone else, he looks around for an exit while waiting for the chief to respond

"hey kid…"

he trails, awaiting for a response

"yeah?"

he sighs heavily

"there is none"

Humphrey drops the radio in grief, he crawls silently towards the celler wall and upon reaching it he props himself up and sits, waiting for the flames to reach him

"how long does it take to die from fire?"

he questions himself, then he vaguely remembers

"oh, about three minutes"

while the flames slowly creep closer he questions himself again

"do you think its painfull?"

he asks himself although no-one will answer, he stares at the flames again, yep they're getting closer, he sits there waiting death and decides

"hell if im going to die I better try to make the most of it"

he says out loud and he reaches for the dropped radio

"hey chief?"

"yes Humphrey?"

"well do you remember the time when we fooled the new kid into kissing a man?"

he hears a chuckle

"yeah, howd we manage to do that again?"

Humphrey sits there and smiles at the memory, when he remembers he replies

"well we told him in order to get in you have to kiss a girl, damn kid never kissed one in his life, so Felix, remember him?"

"yeah"

the lne goes silent, felix also died while trapped in a fire

"well since he had little sisters he borrowed their dresses and dressed up in them, poor kid actually though he was a girl!"

the chief laughs and goes silent

"you know Humphrey we're going to miss you, and your stupid jokes"

Humphrey's eyes begin to brim with tears and the chiefs voice begins to waver

"me and the guys"

he studders

"we'll really miss you"

Humphreys tears spill

"yeah, and I will to- woah what the hell is that?"

"what do you mea Humphrey?"

Humphrey is stunned at what he sees, its an orb of light rising out from the flaming rubble

"I see a light!"

"he must be coming"

the chief answers, being a man of god

"no, no its not that its-"

he's cutt off for the orb of light exploded in a flash of blind light, upon opening his eyes he startled, the orb is now 3 times the size and is floating while plasma pulses around it aswell as electricity

"chief, the light is taking up a lot of the celler, it a mix of yellow green and purple, what the hell, one of the sides are opening up!"

Humphrey drops the radio

"Humphrey?"

the chief screams, while the events unfolding in the cellar are being broadcasted to the chief and a few firemen behind him

"what do you want from me?"

Humphrey calls out upon seeing a figure leave the orb

"Humphrey Collins?"

he asks, upon closer view the man is wearing gray and white armor with dents and places where the pain is chipping off and where there deep gouges in the metal, the firemen aswell as the chief are stunned from what they hear

"Humphrey whats going on?"

the chief yells into the mic, Humphrey glances at the radio and at the figure in the worn suit

"We need you to come with us"

the figure says extending a hand out for him to grab, the chief and the other men stand there in silence all looking at each other with awkward glances, Humphrey doesn't know what to do, before he could react and board comes tumbling down, crashing into the man sending him to the ground, getting to his feet rather quickly he says

"come on man, we REALLY got to go now, or we'll both be dead!"

Humphrey gets to his feet shakily, yelping he collapses into the mans arms and he is carried into the orb of light, where he is seated onto a bench, taking in his surroundings he see what looks to be 4 benches two directly facing each other, and in between each to his and assault rifle and two magazines in the arm rest, on the wall is a first aid kit, the man Is fumbling with a pack of blue liquid with tubes and needles

"hey, let me see your leg"

he says and Humphrey quickly replies, the man removing a worn looking knife from his belt begins to cutt but Humphrey stops him "wait, I can get out of it" he fumbles with the straps and buckles and gets out of it fine, until he gets towards his hurt leg, from there the man cuts it vertically allowing him to get out, the wound is horrible, it cut very deep, it even went into the bone, the man curses

"shit, right in the knee cap"

he says, he shrugs and begins the attach the bag of fluid to his leg, he only winces a bit when the needles enters, he claps his hands togather

"done!"

he says joyously and sits down in the bench infron of him

"well im sure you're going to have a few questions, so ask"

**I got this idea from playing darkest of days on my xbox , well how was that for a story nobody has wote before? dont forget reveiw!**


	3. Chapter 3

"his leg is not to good"

a voice said, opening his eyes, he can see blurry figures

"he's waking up"

another said

"well put him out"

after a few seconds there was a burning sensation and his eyelids started to slowly close.

"is he awake?"

a wolf asks, another shakes their head "soon though" the same wolf says, and reaches for another vile

"soon"

the wolf whispers and injects the serum into Humphrey, Humphreys eyes shoot open, blinding light causes him to shut them, he sits up, opening his eyes he can tell that he's in a hospital

"I gotta find Kate"

he thinks and rips the iv from his arm, sliding out of bed her hears the sound of metal clinking, looking down at his leg, he realizes its not there, it has been replaced by a steel prosthetic, upon standing up he feels a breeze, he only has a sheet wrapped around him, standing up while holding onto the thin sheet, he can defiantly see a bulge where uh, you know is there, hurrying towards the door he stops and peeks through the little window, coast is clear he opens the door and quickly rushes out, bumping into another wolf sending the wolf clattering to the ground, as well as his sheet, the wolf looks up and raises an eyebrow, he looks down and instantly covers up, the other wolf gets to its feet and says

"Lilly, Leader of the Alpha's."

, he turns red

"uh sorry you had to see that, Humphrey Collins is my name anyways"

he puts on an forced smile

"yes, about that"

she looks away

"lets just pretend that never happened"

he combs a hand through his hair

"agreed"

after an silence she says

"well, anyways, im supposed to show you the ropes and what not so come with me"

she beckons him to follow, this time he holds tightly onto the sheet, feeling himself get redder and redder the more the other wolves stare at him while he and Lilly go where ever they're supposed to go, he cant help but to notice when a group of wolves with tight fitting armor point and chat

"uh Lilly"

he whispers, she glances back, surprised about how red he is despite his grey fur

"yes?"

she replys trying to keep a straight face

"how close are we?"

she grins

"less than halfway"

he groans, more than once his sheet threatened to fail on him, always when that happened you could here a little yelp and frantic movement, it was hard not to laugh for everyone, EXCEPT Humphrey

"he got the basic story, about how he wasn't supposed to die and how they were taking him somewhere safe, blah blah blah, he just wanted to go see Kate"

after awhile of walking through the hallways he finally got the nerve to ask Lilly

"hey, uh when will I be able to see Kate?"

the hallways are silent, she rubs the back of her head

"uh, I truthfully don't know…"

she trails, she can see the pained expression on his face

"but I can find out"

he smiles weakly and gives her a thumbs up, which causes a side of the sheet to slide down low enough to, he catches it quickly

"okay"

she thinks

"its enough trying to humiliate him, better take him towards the changing room"

she enters an empty corridor, and opens a door

"your suit should be in there also, uh I'll be waiting out side, if you need help, just uh ask"

she silently scolded her self,

"why was she letting him cuase her to stutter and act like some sort of school girl"

eventually he exited, strolling out he asks

"how does it look?"

she took a step back and admired

"for a first time you got right"

he grins

"at least I've done something right"

the grin fades, she can't stand it

"come with me"

he complies and she's then leading him towards the arena

"this fun, you'll like it"

he followed her to a for in the hallway

"alright you go left, I'll go right"

upon entering the left hallway he is taken into a room full of weapons ammo and other miscellaneous gear

"_now Humphrey can you hear me?"_

Lilly's voice his heard from the speakers above

"uh yeah!"

"_great"_

she purrs,

_"alright I want you to grab one of those stenbolt-92' over there"_

Humphrey glances around and grabs the closet assault rifle looking things he could find, he raises it up

_"that's it, alright grab a few magazines for it, they're shaped like a hammer" _

he looked around until he found what he assumed looked like a hammer

_"now you see the hole in the stock of the stenbolt, just shove it in there stick side first"_

he shrugged and did exactly what he was told, it went in easily

"_wonderfull, the stenbolt is a primarily a submachine gun, now some targets will appear, shoot them"_

as soon as she said it picture of a nazi soldier aiming a kar-98 at him appeared, he fired, his shots went wild

"t_ry actually aiming"_

he chuckled and aimed down the sights, the next burst successfully hit

"_great shot, except it only took you thirty seconds, you would have been dead by now, now grab the Mar-D2 the primary weapon that most of our forces use" _

he glanced around until he found a larger looking assault rifle and grabbed it aswell as magazines for it

"_they grow up so fast"_

she mocked him, he noticed this was, a normal-ish **(**A/N the MAR-D2 looks like an M41 pulse rifle, google it) 

_"alright you're going to have another target appear shortly"_

the target appears after a minute wait, this time it's a confederate soldier charging him with a bayonet, he fired a burst, the MAR-D2 had a bigger kick than the stenbolt-92

_"great ill meet you outside this room and we can practice later, get some rest" _

humphrey complied, he set the rifle down and left, awaiting news for where he's sleeping.


End file.
